A man was fatally shot by a Walton County deputy after charging at the officer with a sledgehammer Saturday, according to the GBI.
William Parrott, 35, of Wrightsville, was believed to be the primary suspect in the deaths of his parents, News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB reported. Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman told the radio station his deputies encountered Parrott at a gas station after deadly attacks at his father’s home in Wrightsville, a small town about an hour east of Macon, and at his mother’s Loganville mobile home.
Chapman said he believes Parrott left his mother’s home around 7:30 p.m. Saturday and drove to a Marathon station on Ga. 81, where according to the GBI he used his truck to damage several other vehicles in the parking lot. He got out and began to damage a vehicle with a hammer, GBI officials said in a news release.
Parrott then drove to an EZ Stop convenience store on Ga. 81, got out of his truck armed with the hammer and confronted a bystander who was armed with a gun, officials said.
“A Walton County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived on scene and encountered the armed citizen and Parrott,” a GBI spokesperson said in the news release. “The armed citizen complied with the deputy to put their gun down. Parrott, still armed with the hammer, charged at the deputy. The deputy fired one shot, striking Parrott.”
He was pronounced dead at a hospital. The GBI Medical Examiner was expected to perform an autopsy.
Further details about the earlier homicides were not released.
Parrott’s death is the 26th officer-involved shooting the GBI has been asked to investigate this year. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also tracks officer-involved shootings that don’t involve the GBI, and those numbers sometimes differ from the GBI’s tally.
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